Blue Ridge Market To Start 21st Season The Owners Live On-site And Started A Drive-in There In The 1950s.

February 09, 1996|by SONIA CSENCSITS, The Morning Call

You might say the Blue Ridge Drive-In Flea Market has heart.

While owner Stanley Mackes recuperates from heart surgery, he and his wife Caroline look forward to their 21st season at the Saylorsburg market.

FOR THE RECORD - (Published Saturday, February 10, 1996) A story about Blue Ridge Drive-In Flea Market on the business page yesterday had an incomplete quote from Grace Kipp. The entire quote is: "It has grown into a really big market. When we started, there were just a handful of us. It it a place that has taken off. People keep coming back."

"He is anxious to get back. And, even if he couldn't, I would continue," Mrs. Mackes, 66, said. Mackes, 72, was a machinist at Bethlehem Steel Corp. until his retirement in 1982. The surgery was performed in November and Mackes continues to recuperate at home.

Both are eager for opening day, April 6, to roll around. "We are ready to go," she said adding, "It's a fun place and people enjoy coming here."

It is one of more than a dozen regular markets in the region where dealers hawk new and second-hand goods to buyers who hope to find a gem in the junk.

The Mackes' have lived on the 10-acre site just off Route 33 in Saylorsburg since 1944. The farm once welcomed guests at a bed and breakfast. They opened the Blue Ridge Drive-in Theater in 1953. As the outdoor movie business waned, Mrs. Mackes decided to try a new venture, a flea market on the vast outdoor theater grounds.

"We opened the flea market July 4, 1976. We had about eight vendors," Mrs. Mackes said. Today, an average of 450 vendors pay $10 a day to set up shop for a weekend. "We have been at $10 for the past four years and we are trying to hold it there," she said.

The market is open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April to December. On any given weekend in season, vendors spread their wares far beyond the original boundaries of the outdoor movie theater.

They sell a vast array of old and new articles, clothing, furniture, records, books, tools, household goods, jewelry, crafts and produce in season. Cars from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania can be found overflowing the parking lots. Concession stands are operated by the Mackes' son-in-law, Richard Hughes, and brother-in-law, Raymond Mackes.

Philip Kipp of East Stroudsburg will be there again this season, selling tools and hardware. His wife, Grace said the two started 20 years ago at the Blue Ridge at the suggestion of a relative. They were living in Bethlehem where Kipp was employed as a salesman for Bethlehem Steel Corp., and spending their summers in the Poconos.

Their stand in the market is just a hobby. "We could not live off this," Mrs. Kipp said. Still, they enjoy getting out and meeting people so much that even though a job transfer brought the Kipps to Baltimore, they continue to spend weekends at Blue Ridge.

"It has grown in to a really big market. When we started, there were just a handful of us," Mrs. Kipp said adding, "It it a place that